MY dog is expecting!!!

My lab Baylee is prenat by my other Lab Howie and although I an excited I am freaking out and not sure what to do. The more I read the more confused I get. Here is my question... Do I need to seperate then and if so when? How long befor she has the puppies. and how long after. Also will Howie want to hurt the pup's how does that work? Howie and Baylee hav been together since Howie was six mo and Baylee was 8weeks. And althought we were able to keep them apart during her first heat. I was in an accident and she came in heat again while I was gone and my 18yr old was in charge and did not confes to me that she could be pregnet until after she WAS!!! I would of like to wait until she was at last 2 in a half. But keeping them apart is hard do to the fact that Howie will howl and cry for her until you go crazy. ANy advice will be great

Sounds like you know what you did wrong, so I'm not gonna go over that. I'm sure others will do a right fine job of it anyways...

1. Unless she is having stress issues, you shouldn't need to separate them until before she whelps. I'd say a week before. She can play with Howie after the pups are born but to be safe he shouldn't come into contact with the pups. 2. Every male is different as to how they view puppies. Some are great, some you can never safely have them with puppies.

I'm sorry this happened while you were away. That is frustrating. I will say you probably should not have left a dog in heat in the care of a child, teenager or not. I keep my girl under lock and key while she is in heat, and I would never trust anyone but me and my hubby to keep her safe from a stud.

If this was an unwanted litter, you may want to consider getting your girl spayed anyways. Don't know what your ethics are in that case, so I thought I'd suggest it.

As a person who works in a shelter, I've gotta say I'm disappointed yet another unwanted litter will be brought into this world. At least they are purebred...

First of all, have the male neutered. He will make a better pet. Unless he is an exceptional show Lab, neuter him. There are more than enough ho hum Labs and Lab mixes in the world already, don't continue to add to the problem. The shelters are filled with them, cute puppies, puppies that had the nicest parents, the puppies whose parents were big, small, short, tall, cute, homely, long haired, short haired, sweet, a good pet. Thousands of puppies dieining daily because of irresponsible pet owners.

jde8624, sorry about your predicament. Have your dogs had all their immunizations, and been regularly wormed? What stage of pregnancy is your bitch in, or what day? Have you done any testing on them at all,or prelims, (I can't recall their ages). Do you show your dogs? Has your male had a brucellosis test? Don't panic, it's no use crying over spilt milk, the damage is done. The same thing has happened to others. What you have to do now is determine if you are going to have this litter, or have your dog spayed. If your male is not a champion, then as the former poster stated, I would have him neutered as well, unless of course you plan on showing him, or entering him into other competition. Whatever you decide, there is lots of advice here, and plenty of breeder experience to draw from, so good luck, and keep us posted.

yes you needed to seperate them BEFORE they got themselves in this predicament.

birth is ~ 62 days after they bred. if they have bred multiple times, then count from the last breeding and know it could happen a little earlier.

at ~ 25 days you can go to your vet and have a blood test done to determine if she is indeed pregnant. if she is, then ~45 days from when she was bred you should take her to the vet and have him do an xray on her to determine just how many puppies are going to be born.

start scraping together your loose change in the unfortunate event she will need a c-section. they can be costly.

if she isn't already, put her on a GOOD brand of dog food, njot the cheap junk sold at walmart.

start reading everything you can on the subject, you don't have much time to learn.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.